Posts by Laura Kelly
Empowering Health in Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico’s proximity to the equator provides the island with more direct sunlight than more northern regions, making it an ideal location for solar power. In the days after Hurricane Maria’s Category 4-landfall in Puerto Rico in Sept. 2021, staff from the Hermanas Misioneras del Buen Pastor Clinic delivered aid to a pummeled island. “They…
Read MoreSupplies in Hand, Pittsburgh Students Craft Their Futures
When students at West Liberty Elementary School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, were called down to the school gymnasium for a special presentation on Nov. 9, they came prepared. Each student would be leaving the assembly with their own set of school supplies, and they made banners to show their thanks. In June, BBF provided a grant…
Read MoreBlossoming Beyond
If we can catch cancer at earlier stages, there are more treatment options …We know that knowledge is power, and we want to empower our community members to be their own healthcare advocates. Joanne Boyd, program director at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center’s Office of Community Outreach and Engagement In the ongoing battle against breast cancer,…
Read MoreA Season to Celebrate Giving
Dear Friends, As we embrace the season of giving and express our gratitude, we reflect on the incredible impact your generosity has had on our programs in the global community. In this year-end magazine, we are proud to showcase the successes that, together, we have achieved. From the stories of transformed lives to the tangible…
Read MoreMed-Surg in Guatemala
The Med-Surg program collaborates with healthcare providers on global missions, reaching out to patients in underserved communities worldwide. BBF equips physician-led teams with short-dated medications generously donated by partner pharmaceutical companies. Through direct collaboration with on-site medical professionals, BBF ensures the safe and targeted distribution of pharmaceutical donations to the communities that require them the…
Read MoreFrom our President
Your donations in action – A snapshot of BBF’s core relief work With so many natural disasters and man-made calamities often overshadowing our daily news cycles, I thought it important to highlight the near daily life changing impact of your ongoing support of BBF’s regular relief work. Covering the period from January – June 2023,…
Read MoreUkraine Shipments Merges Humanitarian Efforts Across State Lines
BBF has sent a shipment of medical and wound care supplies to the Ukrainian National Medical University in Kyiv, Ukraine, where it will be distributed to frontline community hospitals in urgent need of supplies. This is the third shipment of supplies BBF has sent to the university since the war started. Priority medical and surgical…
Read More2.3 Million Helping Hands
What does it take for 2 million people around the world to lend a helping hand? Lots and lots and lots of gloves. In June, a healthcare company donated over 60 pallets of nitrile exam gloves to Brother’s Brother Foundation—that’s 2,314,700 pairs of gloves. The donation entered our warehouse on three trucks; our staff…
Read MoreBBF Partnership Supports Earthquake Relief Efforts in Nepal
Brother’s Brother Foundation is responding to the recent earthquake in western Nepal by providing a grant to on-the-ground partner organization Himalayan Health Care. The 6.4-magnitude earthquake that struck Jajarkot, Nepal on November 3 killed more than 150 people and displaced over 10,000 others. Hundreds of aftershocks have disrupted the region since. As the winter approaches,…
Read MoreMobile Health Clinic Helps Hundreds at Annual Pittsburgh Event
The mobile health van Brother’s Brother Foundation donated to the Eye and Ear Foundation of Pittsburgh made an appearance at this year’s Mission of Mercy event, where it helped over 800 patients receive free eye exams. Mission of Mercy is an annual two-day event held in Downtown Pittsburgh that provides free dental and vision exams…
Read MoreUpdate on Response to Earthquake in Morocco
Brother’s Brother Foundation responded to the 6.8-magnitude earthquake that struck outside Marrakesh, Morocco, on Sept. 9 by providing a grant to Life for Relief & Development. The organization used the funding to distribute food packs to 250 families, reaching a total 1,500 people. The earthquake flattened mud-brick villages, killing over 12,000 people and displacing 500,000…
Read MoreGuatemala Shipment Provides Pain Relief Medications
Argentina, a 59-year-old woman in Guatemala, didn’t think she would find relief from her pain. “I initially told the nurse not to treat me because I am not able to pay for the medicine anyway,” she said. Nearly 60 percent of people in Guatemala live below the poverty line, and with very little government…
Read MoreCritical Equipment Resumes Lab Operations at Hôpital Albert Schweitzer in Haiti
Lab technicians at Hôpital Albert Schweitzer (HAS) in Haiti normally run hundreds of tests each day, but recently, they ran into a problem: the equipment they use for the testing, a critical chemical analyzer, stopped working. HAS is the main referral hospital for more than 350,000 residents in rural central Haiti. Physicians rely on the…
Read MoreWhat is the “Safety Net” in the US Public Health System?
If you read about public health in the United States, you have likely heard this term, and wondered to yourself… what is the “safety net”? This is actually a great question, as it is often not clearly defined. While designing our domestic programs, we took a close look at the major components of the “safety…
Read MoreCreating Ukraine’s Next Generation of Nurses
Photo Caption: Seven nursing students at Sambir Medical College in Sambir, Ukraine, receive laptops presented by the college’s Director, Liubomyr Kovalchuk. | Photo courtesy of Sambir Medical College Nurses are critical in Ukraine, but the ongoing war has created a shortage that has caused many of them to burnout. It also doesn’t help that the…
Read MoreISRAEL – HAMAS CONFLICT: BROTHER’S BROTHER FOUNDATION RESPONDS TO HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
Brother’s Brother Foundation (BBF) has set up a fund to assist innocent civilians impacted by the widespread destruction and loss of life caused by the ongoing fighting in the Middle East. We are also working with partners on the ground to evaluate how we can most effectively support those impacted by the crisis. Our response…
Read MoreAntiseizure Medication Sent to Armenia for Refugees
A shipment of antiseizure medications has been sent to a hospital in Armenia, following a mass exodus from the neighboring region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Brother’s Brother Foundation partnered with the ROW Foundation to send 432 starter kits of Lamotrigine to Arabkir Medical Center, located in Armenia’s capital city, Yerevan. Each kit provides medication for five weeks…
Read MoreHard Hats and Respirator Masks Sent to Hawaii
Seven weeks after severe wildfires destroyed 2,200 buildings in West Maui, residents began returning to their charred homes to see if they had any possessions that survived the fires. For thousands of individuals in West Maui, recovery is on hold until the cleanup of debris from the August 8th disaster is finished, a task…
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